Media with questions about this Marine can
call the 2nd Marine Division Public Affairs Office at (910) 451-9033.
Friday, May. 13, 2005

A Marine to the endSouth Jersey family mourns a son killed in
IraqBy Frank KummerCourtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer

Anthony Goodwin was still playing Pop Warner
football and Little League when he had already decided what he wanted to
be: a U.S. Marine.

He joined the ROTC as a high school freshman
in the 1980s near San Antonio, Texas; his family moved to South Jersey
just a few years later.

No matter, said Paul Cheney, Goodwin's father,
at his home in Westampton. His son, killed Monday in Iraq, always felt
his true home would be anywhere the Marines took him.

"He always intended to be a Marine," Cheney
said yesterday. "He felt it was a noble and just career. He truly felt
he was helping the Iraqi people."

Goodwin, 33, a married father of two, died
from small-arms fire in combat near Al Qaim. A Staff Sergeant, he led an
infantry unit patrolling western Iraq.

Goodwin's mother, Brenda, is already at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina, staying with her son's widow, Kimberly, and the
couple's daughter, Alyssa, and son, Oury.

Goodwin has a brother, Gregory, just shy of
a year younger, who lives in Florence.

A viewing is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at
the Jones Funeral Home in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Burial is to be
3 p.m. Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

Goodwin was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
He grew up mostly in Texas until Cheney moved the family to New Jersey
for a better job.

The family settled in split-level home on Holly
Lane in Westampton in the late 1980s. Goodwin attended Rancocas Valley
High School in Mount Holly, and was gearing up for early admission to the
military.

In all, he lived in Westampton for about 18
months.

Goodwin had recently signed up for a fourth
tour in the Marines, his father said.

"He's highly decorated," Cheney said. "He did
Kuwait, the Gulf War, then, of course, he did this last war. He served
three tours in Iraq."

Goodwin had lived the last 17 years just outside
Camp Lejeune.

He received numerous awards, including two
combat-action ribbons. Among other honors, he was awarded the Navy and
Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal from Saudi
Arabia, three Southwest Asia Service Medals, a Good Conduct Medal, and
two certificates of commendation.

Goodwin was assigned to his current unit in
February 2004 with a mission to "disrupt terrorist activities" and "conduct
patrols to prevent insurgents from developing strongholds," a military
spokesman said.

Karol Vengen, who lives next to Goodwin's parents,
said she used to see Goodwin all the time and played cards with him and
his family.

"Tony was a good kid," Vengen recalled. "He
kept to himself and did his own thing. He was here visiting not long ago,
and his wife was here with him at Christmas."

The members of his family learned of Goodwin's
death when neighbors told them that Marines had been looking for them.
Cheney said he knew right then the news was bad.

"There are only two things they would want:
to say he was severely injured or dead," Cheney said. "We took it as anyone
would take it - it's a severe loss. I have an empty heart."

He added: "What do they say? Once a Marine,
always a Marine."

Friday, May 13, 2005By JASON NARK Courtesy of the Courier-Post

Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Anthony L. Goodwin
fought to go back to Iraq, family members said Thursday.

"His life was his service," said his father,
Paul Cheney. "He felt the people of Iraq needed him. I'm proud to have
him as a son."

The highly decorated Goodwin, a former Westampton
Township resident, was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when he was killed
by enemy small-arms fire Monday. He was on a combat mission to disrupt
terrorist activities near Al Qaim, Marine Corps officials said. He had
arrived in February for a 14-month deployment.

Cheney said Goodwin's funeral will be Monday
in North Carolina, where he was stationed at Camp Lejeune and lived with
his wife, Kimberly; daughter, Alyssa, 15, and son, Oury, 5.

He will buried in Arlington National Cemetery
in Virginia later in the week and he will be awarded the Purple Heart,
said his sister-in-law, Laurie Goodwin.

"He was a Marine through and through," said
Laurie Goodwin, 34, inside her Florence Township home.

Goodwin, 33, was born in Massachusetts and
lived in San Antonio with his father before coming to Westampton Township
to live with his mother and stepfather in a brick split-level on Holly
Lane.

Laurie Goodwin said Anthony and his brother
Gregory, 32, both attended Rancocas Valley High School but Anthony returned
to Texas to finish high school.

Mathilde Vengen, 67, lives next door to Anthony
Goodwin's former home on Holly Lane and said she saw two Marines at the
home earlier this week.

"I knew right away," said Vengen. "I told my
daughter that it has to be Tony."

A Blue Star banner, which signifies a family
member is serving in the Armed Forces, hung in the picture window of Goodwin's
former residence. Vengen said Goodwin's mother had gone to North Carolina
to visit her daughter-in-law and grandchildren before her son's death.

Goodwin enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1989
and served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. After
the Gulf War, he served in a number locations, including Angola and the
Balkans, and he served as a trainer and instructor.

In January 2003, Goodwin reported to the 1st
Battalion, 2nd Marine Division as a platoon sergeant, shortly before deployment
with the II Marine Expeditionary Force for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In March 2004, he was moved to 2nd Marine Regimental
Training Center to serve as the chief instructor for the regiment.

He returned to Iraq in February.

"He knew this would be the most dangerous mission,"
said Cheney.

According to Second Lieutenant Barry Edwards,
a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division, Goodwin's unit "conducted patrols
to prevent insurgents from developing strongholds in the remote cities
of western Iraq."

Goodwin received more than two dozen medals
and commendations while in the Marine Corps, including two Combat Action
ribbons, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medal, three Sea Service
Deployment ribbons, and Kuwait Liberation medals for both Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia from Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Goodwin is the 14th service member from the
tri-county area who has died since American forces invaded Afghanistan
and Iraq.

Laurie Goodwin said both her husband and her
brother-in-law knew Army Spc. Bryan Freeman Jr. from high school.

Freeman, a 1991 graduate of Rancocas Valley,
was killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad on November 8, 2004.

Laurie Goodwin said her husband, who served
eight years in the Army, is devastated at the loss of his older brother.